FTC Sues T-Mobile Over Hundreds Of Millions In Bogus Charges

In another lawsuit, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sued T-Mobile. The company is accused of collecting hundreds of millions of dollars from its customers in bogus charges. It was alleged that T-Mobile earned a windfall in recent years from third-party merchants offering bogus text message subscriptions for things like flirting tips, horoscopes and celebrity gossip. Those charges frequently weren’t authorized by customers.

It was alleged that the charges were concealed on customers’ monthly bills. As many as 40 percent of those customers hit with these monthly charges sought refunds. This, according to the FTC, should have been “an obvious sign to T-Mobile that the charges were never authorized.” The complaint alleges that the charges took place between 2009 until December of last year, and T-Mobile had documentation of high complaint levels as early as 2012.

The lawsuit comes as T-Mobile engages in an aggressive marketing campaign dubbed the “un-carrier” strategy. The company has said its goal is to “upend the mobile industry.” T-Mobile is itself in the process of finalizing a $32 billion merger with Sprint, according to reports. If approved by regulators, the deal would unite the nation’s third- and fourth-largest carriers into a combined entity with subscriber numbers comparable to Verizon and AT&T. The Federal Communications Commission is also investigating T-Mobile’s alleged “cramming.”